Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due:Correctly Citing Information in an MLA

Research Paper in Order to Avoid Plagiarism

Lawrence County High School Library Media Center

Mrs. Ball/Ms. Cleghorn

October 6, 2009

Plagiarism

The uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or

ideas

www.owl.english.purdue.edu

University of Alabama Academic Honor Pledge

I promise or affirm that I will not at any time be involved with cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, or misrepresentation while enrolled as a student at The University of Alabama. I have read the Academic

Honor Code, which explains disciplinary procedures that will result from the aforementioned. I understand that violation of this code will result in penalties as severe as indefinite suspension from the

University.

http://facultysenate.ua.edu/handbook/append-c.html

http://facultysenate.ua.edu/handbook/append-c.html

DON’T!!!

Buy, steal, or borrow a paper Hire someone to write your paper Copy large sections of someone else’s work

without giving them the proper credit

When to Give Credit

Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium

Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person, face to face, over the phone, or in writing

When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase

When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials

When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media

You Don’t Have to Give Credit When...

Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject

When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments

When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc.

When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events (but not historical documents)

When you are using generally-accepted facts, e.g., pollution is bad for the environment

Common Knowledge

Generally, something is common knowledge when it appears undocumented in at least

five other reputable sources

Paraphrasing

Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase or summary, e.g., According to Jonathan Kozol, ....

If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing your paraphrase or summary of a text without looking at the original, relying only on your memory and notes

Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text; correct any errors in content accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to set off any exact phrases from the original text

Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence and paragraph structure, as copying those is also considered plagiarism.

Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases that you cannot or do not want to change, e.g., "savage inequalities" exist throughout our educational system (Kozol).

Three Types of In-Text Citations(MLA)

Give the author credit in the sentence, include a quote from the author, then put the page number where the information was found at the end

– Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous

overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Give the author credit at the end of the sentence, including the page

number where the information was found

– Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Give the author credit for an idea he/she had in the sentence, and include the page number where it was found at the end.

– Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Direct Quotations

Short quotations (less than four lines):– Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of

personality" (Foulkes 184)?

Long quotations (more than four lines)– Indent the entire quotation one inch from the left margin

– Maintain double spacing

– Don’t use quotation marks

– Cite at the end of the quotation as usual, right after the closing quotation mark

Example of a Long Quotation

They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

Adding to a Quotation/Omitting Words from a Quotation

If you add to a quotation, put what you added in brackets– Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states: "some

individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

If you omit words from a quotation, replace the omitted words with elipses (three dots …) – In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some

individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

When There is No Author

Use an abbreviated title:– We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely

because this region has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . . ” (“Impact of Global Warming” 6).

Actual citation from works cited page of above:

The Impact of Global Warming in North America.” GLOBAL WARMING: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

Online Writing Lab at Purdue

All of this information, unless noted elsewhere, came from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University, which is an invaluable source for writing.

www.owl.english.purdue.edu For help with correctly formatting your

works cited page, visit:

www.citationmachine.net